


kindness in cruelty

by scorpionGrass



Series: you can’t put a price on peace (of mind) [2]
Category: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen, Laboratories, Scars, Science Experiments, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21914707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpionGrass/pseuds/scorpionGrass
Summary: Nanaki remembers the way the Turks looked at him when they took him from Cosmo Canyon, pity in their twisted expressions, somewhere between disgust and regret.He remembers feeling like that disgust wasn’t directed at him. It’s not long before he’s proven right.
Series: you can’t put a price on peace (of mind) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1363234
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	kindness in cruelty

Nanaki is transferred between cages with rusty, blood-caked metal bars, and pristine glass pods surrounded by machinery. He’s not sure what he’s doing here, but the Turks said “Shinra” and “Midgar” and it’s not long before he meets “Professor Hojo.”

He’s a reed of a man, cloaked in an oversized lab coat and wiry glasses that Nanaki can see his bug-like beady eyes behind. The slope of his profile is all hard pointed edges, nose hooked, and interrupted with strands of oily black hair that fall out of ponytail while he works. If he’s not muttering to himself, he’s barking orders at his small staff, all terrified of him (or just as twisted).

Nanaki’s first impression doesn’t get better when the Professor enters the cell with a burning metal brand.

(His fur caught fire, his flesh burned almost to rot, and the numeral “XIII” became his name as if he was just another statistic.)

~

Red XIII. It takes weeks for him to begin to answer to the name, partially due to the unfamiliarity of it, but mostly because it’s the only way he can rebel. Most of the time, he’s in an enclosed room away from the scientists and Hojo. He could vaguely hear them whenever a careless intern leaves the microphone on, tapping at their keyboards and discussing various charts. One screen shows his vital signs, and Nanaki is glad to see another chart that says he’s healing well.

Apparently, Hojo had wanted a subject without flaw, but Nanaki had lost his eye in that fight with the Turks. He’d never been so proud of a battle scar, and he takes a strange sort of pleasure knowing it throws a wrench into Hojo’s plans (whatever they are).

“So, specimen Red XIII,” Hojo says through the glass wall, index finger pressed down on the microphone. “You are capable of intelligent human thought, and one of the last of your kind.”

It’s not a question, so Nanaki ignores it, flicking his tail idly back and forth.

“Tell me,” Hojo continues, “do you know why you’re here?”

It’s not preservation. The brand on his leg still stings, burnt skin still slowly crumbling off to reveal tight scabs. “I do not know,” Nanaki says. “For all of the logical reasons have been exhausted.”

Hojo removes his finger from the microphone and Nanaki’s world is doused in silence again.

All he knows is he’s here, and that they’ll run tests on him. He’s not sure what kind, or even what they’re for, but he’s stuck here until he can find a chink in their armour and pull off an escape when his leg heals enough to run without tearing the wounds open and trailing blood after him.

It would be a short chase.

~

A red-headed man walks into the labs. They’re empty, all the scientists either at home or attending to something elsewhere. But he’s not in a lab coat, and Nanaki recognizes the suit as the Turks uniform as he gets closer.

“Yo, Nanaki.”

It’s been a long time since he’s heard his name. “Reno,” he says with a deep nod. “I never got to thank you--”

Reno scoffs, waving his hand. “Nah, you don’t get to thank me. Not when you’re in some shitty cage that’s too small for you.”

He squats down in front of the cage Nanaki’s been allotted for the night. He’s not wrong. Nanaki had to crouch to fit in, curling his limbs as tightly to his body as he can. His tail has slipped between the bars, giving him at least some movement.

But Reno did allow him to finish the ceremony at Cosmo Canyon. His duties fulfilled, he was able to go with them without regrets.

“I’m sorry,” Reno says. “The entire team… well, we’re on about as short of a leash as you can get right now. We can’t disobey orders no matter how gross they are. Company politics, yadda yadda.”

He pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket and grimaces. “Gimme a light?”

Nanaki waves his tail over and Reno takes a drag. “Smells like home,” he says, closing his eyes and thinking about the bonfire in Cosmo Canyon, of the elders and their pipes, of his grandfather’s fingers nimbly rolling his own tobacco.

“Maybe if I get some free time again, I’ll bring you a pack,” Reno offers.

“That would be much appreciated,” Nanaki says, breathing in deeply, and it’s almost enough to block out the stench of rotting flesh, dried blood, and feces left from the specimens that didn’t make it. The ones whose names Nanaki never learned, or never even met.

“Least we can do.”

**Author's Note:**

> I love Nanaki <3 I was reading up on his backstory to try and remember something when I saw that he had a cameo in Before Crisis, and had to write this little vignette to settle my feelings about the events.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed~! Comment and kudos if you'd like to.


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